20/20 - The After Show: She Was Almost Home

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Deborah talks with producer Gail Deutsch about the story of Sierah Joughin, a 20-year-old woman who was abducted and killed while riding her bike through a rural part of Ohio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi everybody, Deborah Roberts here with 2020 The After Show. And today we are talking about our episode called She Was Almost Home, a riveting story. And I got to tell you, if you haven't seen it yet, you're going to want to catch the full episode and then you'll come right back here to hear this one because there's some pretty shocking moments that we're going to be talking about today. So if you're ready to dive in, here's the recap. 2020 and John Kenyonis, our correspondent, looked into the mysterious disappearance of a young woman in rural Ohio. She was riding her bike home and then suddenly vanished. The search for 20-year-old Sierra Joggin led police to a barn that was filled with dark secrets. Ultimately, a local man named James Worley was convicted.

This is a story that you just won't forget. And joining me now is my colleague and 2020 producer, Gail Deutsch, who I'm sure will not. Hey, Gail. Hi, so good to be with you. Yeah, good to be with you too. You and I have worked on so many stories over the years, and I wasn't sure if we had done this particular podcast before. I guess we haven't, but- I've never done a podcast. You've never done a podcast? Well, here you go. Here we go. Well, you and I have worked together

on so many unusual stories and some stories actually that have been a little bit more uplifting in terms of the lesson that was learned and what came out of it. First of all, I just wanna introduce folks to you because you've been here with 2020 for a long time. You have a reputation for bringing kind of a heart and soul into a story. You and I are both moms and we've kind of worked together.

I think in that capacity sometimes bringing our sense of family community to a story. What is it about the 2020 stories that just sort of captivate you? Well, thank you so much for that. I do think that something that we all try to keep in mind is that these are real people and we try to spend some time trying to make sure that people understand who the victims in our stories really were. And in this story in particular, we were helped in that process because there were so many photographs and videos of Sierra that truly helped paint a picture of her for our viewers.

And I just think that was incredibly important because of all of those photographs. Yeah. Gayle, one of the things that's so refreshing, I think, about this podcast is it gives viewers and listeners an opportunity to know a little bit about what happens behind the scenes. We kind of pull back the curtain and they get a chance to know how we do these stories. And one of the things I so enjoy about working with you is that you kind of get things set up and you have a way with people and making them feel right at home and, you know, in very difficult circumstances, feeling at least a little more comfortable. And you did that so well in this story about Ciara.

We got a sense of how lovely she was, a vibrant 20-year-old. She's home on break from the University of Toledo in Ohio. And tell me about her family and her then boyfriend and how you were able to approach them and what you were able to learn about her. Well, yes, we spoke to Sierra's mother, her aunt, her uncle, her grandmother, and also her boyfriend at the time, and also some of her dear friends.

And all of them shared the same thing about Sierra. She was so outgoing. She was so spirited. And what I really was impressed by was how confident she was. And her mom talks about this in the episode, you know, a lot of people, her age, it's like, Oh, I don't like the way I look. I don't like the way this. She was not like that. She was utterly herself, utterly confident. And you can just see it. And everyone who spoke about her said the same thing about her.

Strong personality. Yeah, and that's what made the tragedy that befell her just so difficult. One of the things you talked about was gathering all those pictures and there's sweet moments where we see her with her boyfriend, Josh. He's on a motorcycle, she's on her bike.

And it was pretty evident that they seemed to just really be taken with each other, right? It's such a sweet moment because you could just see they love, he loves teasing her. You can see in this video. And then what I love too is, I mean, they know each other forever. I mean, as little kids, we've always pictures of them as little kids together. They grew up together. And then it's just chilling though. Also, when you look at this video on the motorcycle, because it's right before they parted ways and right before it turns out she was abducted so it's terrifying. I had a motorcycle I hopped on that and just started riding the cider. When we were just pulled out of my house I did take two

snapchat videos for anybody that us, it was a running joke that I'm on the motorcycle and she's on a bicycle. So I'm going on a bike ride. Move your ass. Sierra being the strong person that she is, right about a mile in, she's like, okay, that's enough, you can go home now. You don't have to follow me the whole way.

Another mile of hearing that, I decided to stop and turn around. It's 6.43 p.m. when Josh takes those Snapchats. It's 10 minutes later when he and Sierra separate. I remember exactly what I said. I kissed her. I told her I loved her and to text me when she got home. Yeah, it's the last time he would see her.

Well, let's talk about that because she was abducted and there was a search. So she's on her way home. She had seen him. She's on her way home on her bicycle. He had accompanied her part of the way on his motorcycle and then she went off, probably something she had done before. And then she's suddenly missing. And the family felt right away something was off. They knew something was wrong. This is a woman who is like a lot of people her age. I mean, she has her phone with her and it was basically immediate panic. And it's so distressing because in our interviews, even though it's been years later, you can still hear that panic in their voice.

They did not know where she was. And you can see it too in this dash cam video that we have of the grandparents. They're just pacing in the cornfields because they don't, they have no idea where she is, but they know at some point that her bike is there in the cornfield. So the panic, the terror is very visceral. Yeah. So they've got this desperate search. For all of the people in law enforcement there and all the people who live there, there was a frantic search for her with many people involved because they knew something was deeply wrong.

Yeah, I grew up in small town Georgia and I think sometimes that is actually helpful to me when I'm going out to do these stories because I can relate to people in small towns. But this is, as you said, there's a cornfield. I mean, there are farmers out in this area. It's kind of like rural Ohio. You're a New Yorker.

What was that like for you out there and kind of getting a sense of what that search was all about in an area like that? Right. I've been to a lot of small towns, but I've never actually been in the middle of cornfields. And so it's quite vast. I felt zero sense of danger. And so that's something that's quite eerie about it as well. Which is probably what she felt when she's out there riding her bike, right? No sense of danger. No sense of danger. And so that's something that's quite eerie about it as well. Which is probably what she felt when she's out there riding her bike, right? No sense of danger.

No sense of danger. And actually, it's interesting. So our shoot, our initial shoot was in June, and the corn hadn't grown yet. And there's that expression knee high by the 4th of July. And we're asking everybody, you know, when is the corn going to be to the height that it was when this happened? Because it's actually quite important to see it at the height that it was when this happened, because it's actually quite important to see it at the height where it was literally be above your head. And that's how he was able to hide her in there. And that's why he was able to get away with his crime, because the corn became part of the abduction.

Yeah, and kind of a big part of the story. And for our listeners, that is important. When we go to shoot these stories, oftentimes, you know, the crime has happened years before, and we're shooting at a different time of the year than it happened. And that's important sometimes to be able to see what was happening during that time. And in this case, the corn, you know, and the height of the corn was made a big difference in this story in terms of like telling the story for you to be able to get pictures and show what it was like. Yeah, you really need to visualize it because it was so high and so dense.

You could see how somebody could just be lost within it. Yeah. Well, Gail, we've got a lot to talk about because we want to talk about what happened to her, the suspect that police actually zeroed in on. So we're going to take a quick break and then I want to hear you tell us a little bit more about what sadly was some chilling evidence that police found in the suspect's barn. So stay with us everybody. This show is supported by June's Journey, the gripping game that's free to download on iOS and Android

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who produced the 2020 episode, She Was Almost Home. And Gail, you and I were talking about rural Ohio, where Sierra was found and James Worley was a suspect that police began looking at early on who lived very close to her. Take us back to that with the investigators that you got to talk to. He was a guy who lived just a couple of miles away from where she disappeared. Police went to go talk to him and suddenly he started to reveal some odd details and

they began to look at him sort of suspiciously. Right. This was in many ways a lucky break for investigators. I mean, they were, they had no leads. And then Worley was somebody who they considered to be an odd guy. And as soon as they start talking to him, he actually places himself at the scene of where the bike had been found in the corn. So I mean, their alerts went up immediately as soon as they started talking

to him in his house. Tell us a little bit about James Worley and what he was like. Well, so he was in his early 50s and he was taking care of his mother at that property there was partly something that's unique to James Worley I guess is he just keeps talking keeps talking and that is something that you can hear it on the audio that he's just he's just talking talking and revealing some things about his night that all of a sudden it's immediate suspicion I know we just kind of showed up so Well, yeah, you kind of showed up. It's a bad reason that you're here, obviously.

We got up to leave, and he wouldn't quit talking. I do the best I can each day with what I got, which ain't much. But I'm not out there stealing chicks, robbing chicks, stealing people. I'm not out there stealing chicks, robbing chicks, stealing people. What was your reaction? That's just something that's stuck in our heads.

Like, why? Why these responses? And as you're listening to all this, how suspicious are you becoming? Very suspicious at that point. We knew that we needed to leave there to get a search warrant for the property. And they just think, oh my goodness, we think that we've landed on this lead. Because it could have gone on for days and days more that they had no one having any idea where she was because it's not like there's cameras in those cornfields where you can see what

happened. Yeah so they start talking he's got a barn they begin to look and search his barn and it is what was called a barn of horrors. I mean let's talk about that. Tell us about how they stumble upon this, what they find. Then we'll talk about how we presented this kind of part of the story. Well, so in the barn, there's this crate. And as people could see in the show, there's these Ziploc bags filled with Lemons lingerie. And of course, investors are asking why do you have this? And it literally just makes no sense that you have all of these bags of lingerie in a barn. So every step of this process, investigators are realizing that this is getting more and more suspicious, that there would be

this. And there's other parts of the barn too, that just seem suspicious. Like there's this raked area where it looks like he just cleaned up and the door that they have is blacked out and it just everything's reading what is going on here. Yeah, it's so chilling and it's sensitive. It's upsetting. Talk to us a little bit about how we choose to present these things. First of all, you've got a 20-year-old who is missing in our story as we're telling it, and then you find something like this. Talk about how we decide about portraying

and showing these kinds of sensitive areas and information. Right, I mean, I think that we always just try to keep in mind that this is a person with loved ones and try to stick to the facts of what we're seeing in the investigation and I guess not dwell too often or too long on some of the more sort of details. And in this case, it's just something where when these investigators are in there, the other thing we're keeping in mind is at that point, they don't know what happened to Sierra. They're still hoping to find her. So there's still that urgency while they're there that we're also trying to communicate that they're seeing these clues and they're still hoping that they're going to find Sierra. So time is of

the essence. Yeah. And in our storytelling, that's how we're trying to unfold it too. But then they stumble upon this underground freezer, which was just so bizarre and creepy and frightening. Tell us about how those moments influenced you in putting the story together. They are still hoping, they think right then, okay, we have found where she is, that she must be in this freezer. And then when we went and actually filmed in the freezer, we were able to go and see it. And you could see that it is possible for somebody to fit in there. And I mean, just the disappointment when they see that it's empty.

And so that is part of our storytelling as well, is just to try to keep in the moment of what it was like for the family and investigators as these days are unfolding. And they're trying to find her and they know that he knows something. And Gail, oftentimes when we're on these shoots, there's a surprise. I mean, something that's not quite expected for us. And you found that in this case.

That's true. We were filming with the investigators with Sarah's bicycle and some other evidence that they had put on a table for us and sort of mentioned at one point that there's another storage area down the road. It had been a very, very long day, but we're trained, I think, as producers to just keep pushing. And we're like, yep, we'll stay late. Let's go to that spot. And it turns out that's where they had the crate and the freezer and the blacked out door. And I think those were quite

important for John Canionis to see. He was the one with us and to kind of really get a sense of the evidence that was in the barn. So that was just down the road. And anyway, note for all of us to just, you know, keep those long days coming because they're pretty important. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, ultimately it turns out to be tragic and, and, and they do find her body. it turns out to be tragic and, and, and they do find her body. What had happened? Unfortunately, she had been murdered by James Worley and he, despite them asking, where is she? He obviously, he never said, and they had to reach out to the community.

And ultimately what happened is they were able to find some disturbed corn fields and they were able to find some disturbed cornfields, and they were able to find her final resting place. And when the investigators talk about having to do that dig, it's just truly heartbreaking. It was the worst possible outcome that anyone could have imagined in all of it. And look, I know what it's like when you just, you have a kid, your kid, and you've lost them at the supermarket for five minutes, and I get this like panic, probably because I work here. Even for 45 seconds. Yeah.

Right. And just the idea that this family had that feeling of panic for days. And then to have an end like this, it's just, just a horror. I always remember now, the aunt Tara talking about how she had to have therapy to literally erase the sound of the screaming from the family. And so that's something that I think about sometimes is just their strength in being able to deal with this and just that little feeling of panic that you sometimes have and just to know

that it never went away. It's really heartbreaking. It just is. You have communicated with Whirly for this story. And before we get to everything else that transpired, It just is. You have communicated with Whirly for this story. And before we get to everything else that transpired, give me a sense of your impressions of him. Well, so he sent me over a hundred pages of, in a sort of a big document that he sent me,

a lot of handwritten, very tiny, all caps, very tidy handwriting. And then I actually spoke to him on the phone for around an hour and a half at 30-minute increments because of the jail system. And he was very similar to what you heard in the show. He talks incessantly. So I probably at one point, you know, was just listening for 20 minutes and then I would kind of interject. He was talking, talking, talking, and what he was saying was very much what was in his letter, which is, you know, essentially he doesn't, he says he didn't do it. He says that he was framed. He has a number of different things that he writes about how, you know, this is not fair and it's, you know, he's

not guilty is what he's saying and this is despite what the prosecution called you know overwhelming evidence yeah yeah and what's that like for you guys because again behind the scenes for our listeners you know you and all the other producers you gather all of these documents and you get a lot more detail than we ever can put on the air and of course you present a lot of that stuff and I get a chance to delve into it with you. But you guys get these letters sometimes from folks who've been accused.

And what is that like for you when you're pouring through these letters and trying to decide, do you think there's any validity to what he's saying? What was that like for you? We read it and try to see if there's any validity to any of it. In this case, of course, he had been found guilty

on all counts. He was sentenced to death. And a lot of the things that he was talking about were also about some other cases too. So he was bringing up other names in his letters. So that's also part of our communication with him is to try to find out, is there anything else besides the Sierra Joggin case that he wants to talk to us about? Yeah. In the meantime, when you say he's on death row, he was convicted in 2018 and so far his conviction has been upheld. Yeah, the Ohio Supreme Court has upheld his murder conviction, but he does still have

a federal appeal left. So he still has another option to try to keep his case alive. All right, we're going to take a moment here. And after the break, we're gonna talk about something that happened 26 years before Ciara disappeared. You alluded to another case that might have some relevance here. Another woman was abducted under eerily similar circumstances and she lived to tell her story.

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Get 16 free meals when you order today. Go to suvi.com slash abc. That's suvie.com slash abc. Save time and eat better with Suvi. Welcome back to the After Show. And we're talking about our 2020 episode, which was called, She Was Almost Home. Gail Deutsch worked on this story and you know so much of what is so riveting in our pieces I think

is trial. When people are put on trial there's testimony, there's sometimes surveillance tape that we have had a chance to see, sometimes there's depositions. So in this particular case, Robin Gardner was actually testifying and it was so powerful. Her story, her survival story, had happened decades before this one. Let's talk about her in the program and how and why you decided to fold her into our storytelling.

Her story is unbelievable. I mean, essentially the same thing happened to her, but decades before, but she was able to survive because she was also in a cornfield. She was also on a bike. But somebody drove by with a motorcycle and she says that that is absolutely what saved her life. As soon as I was ready to turn around, I heard a car coming. That is the truck, and that's the one that hit me. So I flew into a ditch. This person got out the car to check on her, and he was asking her if she was OK.

So I got up from the ditch. He came up, and I wasn't looking at what he was doing, and he hit me over the head with a hammer on the left side of my head. And I was terrified instantly. Then all of a sudden, he grabbed her, and was dragging her, and got her into the truck. And the next thing I know, he opened the glove box

and got handcuffs out. I just looked at them, and I just instantly thought I was dead. And I just fought as hard as I could so he couldn't get both hands behind me. And I just fought as hard as I could so he couldn't get both hands behind me. She caused such a commotion that a motorcycle that was approaching on that county road stopped. She then runs, jumps onto the back of a motorcycle and takes off.

If that motorcyclist didn't come, I wouldn't be here. There's absolutely no doubt. I call him my guardian angel. When I got home, the police came, the ambulance came, and they said, we found him. He's still at the scene of the crime. They found out his name is James Worley. I never knew him. No connection at all. James Worley was 31 years old at the time. He ended up taking a plea to an abduction charge

and served three years. It was eerily similar in both attempted abduction of Rodman Gardner and the actual abduction of Sierra. Sierra and I were two strong independent women and we just thought we'll be fine. We'll just ride home and we just unfortunately crossed paths with the monster. For her, she talks about how important it was to sort of be Ciara's voice,

and especially at the trial, because she had to go to this trial and sit and look at James Whirly, this man who had violently attacked her. The same guy. Same guy, the absolute same guy. So I just think it takes immense strength to be able to do that because she is still affected by that crime decades later. It was heartbreaking to me because she talks about how she loves birding and that we filmed her with her birds and and that she can't go birding alone anymore ever since this incident that happened so so much time

and then she had moved and I just think it's important sometimes for us to realize how these even when you survive your life changes with with with these crimes and it did for her. Yeah and again to your point these are real people who are affected by this whether it's the family of the victim or somebody like her. What about motive? You know there never really was a clear understanding and certainly Worley is you know still arguing his innocence but do we ever kind of understand a little bit about what might have happened here

other than just you know a serial predator? You, we start the show with some soundbites that are just about how evil can be anywhere. And it's sometimes with people who live amongst us, which is a quite chilling thought. But I think in this case, it really rings true, because, unfortunately, this is just what everyone's nightmare would be. There's no explanation. And it's random chance to. Robin happened to be riding her bike right when she passed her path with James Whirly, same with Ciara. And I should mention that Whirly, he pleaded guilty to abducting Robin Gartner. He served three years in prison, but he had been long out. And obviously by the time the Sierra Joggin case came along. Yeah, and he was sort of off the radar,

which is also very chilling and kind of creepy. Gail, for me, sometimes when we cover these stories, they're kind of hard to shake. And as you said, the random nature, anytime we've done stories where it's just been so random, I think those are the ones that affect me, and I'm sure they probably affect our viewers and our listeners.

How about you, what was your takeaway from this story? That was the takeaway to some degree, and also the way that this crime affected people. Josh, Sarah's ex-boyfriend, talks about how, like the life he thought that he was gonna have didn't end up being what his life is. And it's the same for the other family members. And they struggle to kind of figure out

how to move on after something like this. And you could just see the pain and how they're trying to manage these ripple effects that go across the family and then the entire community. Yeah, we talked to her mom, Sheila, and that's the thing that really gets you. I mean, these people are living with this for the rest of their lives. What was heartening

I guess if that you can find anything heartening in it is that at the end of the day they try to find you know something these family members oftentimes will try to find something that makes sense and they talked about her legacy they were trying to turn her tragedy into some kind of a purpose. Ciara's law was something that was enacted in Ohio. Justice for Ciara organization. Tell us a little bit about what you learned about those. Well, so Ciara's Aunt Tara, this is something that she has just been so devoted to.

It's spending hours and hours and hours. This is not something where you do one thing and then that's it. It's a real passion. And we were able to film at this spirit run for Sierra that you see in the program. And you could just see the enthusiasm for this. And it is a way to try to keep her memory alive. And it is a way to try to see if there's anything that could be done with Sierra's law or And it is a way to try to see if there's anything that could be done with Sarah's Law or with the curriculum that they have where they're teaching kids self-defense to see if there's anything that they can do that's positive in the wake of this tragedy. To make her life something that really mattered and that had some kind of an impact.

Gayle, it is so great to chat with you. I'm going to look forward to our next story together. It's been a little while, but we need to team up on something. Absolutely, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, same here. Well, that's gonna wrap up this episode of 2020 The After Show.

You can stream full episodes of 2020 anytime on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Our podcast is produced by Amirah Williams and Sasha Oselanian with Joseph Diaz, Gail Deutsch, Brian Mazurski and Alex Berenfeld of 2020. Theme music is by Evan Viola. Janis Johnston is the executive producer of 2020. Josh Cohen, the director of podcasting at ABC Audio.

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